Kendall Holt’s Post-Fight Drug Test Result an “Atypical Finding”

On Thursday, March 28, 2013, it was erroneously reported by Lem Satterfield of RingTV.com that IBF junior welterweight champion Lamont Peterson had tested positive for the drug Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (HCG) following his February 22, 2013 eighth round stoppage of Kendall Holt. The site originally posted a story titled, “Peterson Tests Positive for HCG.” Hours later, the story title changed to “Peterson Allegedly Tests Positive for HCG.”

Soon after, this writer tweeted that, according to my sources, the “atypical” result in fact belonged to Kendall Holt. The story was taken down altogether without an explanation from the writer or the publication. Here is the link where the story once was:

The story was incorrect on two levels. For one, the use of the term “positive” in regard to the test results for Holt/Peterson is incorrect.According to multiple sources close to the situation that spoke to Maxboxing.com (on the condition of anonymity and later confirmed by Lamont Peterson’s spokesman Andre Johnson), the actual term used to describe the result was “an atypical finding.” More on that later in this piece.

Secondly - and most important - was that Lamont Peterson did not test positive for anything following the fight. All his results came back negative. In fact, it was Kendall Holt’s “A” sample that showed “an atypical finding.”

“I can confirm at this time that one fighter provided the positive result in question referred to in the results report as ‘atypical’ in relation to the Peterson/Holt post-fight drug test,” said the official statement from Peterson’s camp released to Maxboxing.com mid-afternoon on Thursday. “I can also confirm to you that Lamont Peterson tested negative for all banned substances according to the tests. The IBF, the Lamont Peterson camp and Holt camp have the chain of custody and test results which identifies which fighter provided the ‘atypical’ result.”

When asked if his client had tested positive for HCG, Holt’s attorney, Pat English, replied via email, “Not true to my knowledge.” A follow-up question asking him to confirm his client’s ‘atypical’ result received no reply.

Andre Johnson appeared onleaveitintheringradio.comlater that night to further clarify the situation.

Perhaps the reason the reporter who wrote it (and many who read the false report) jumped the gun in attacking Peterson early Thursday morning on Twitter and Facebook messages related to the story is because of Peterson’s recent history.

Peterson was returning from a long layoff heading into the Holt fight following a positive drug test for synthetic testosterone in the lead-up to his canceled rematch with Amir Khan last year. Peterson would reveal that he had visited an age-clinic, the Desert Oasis in Las Vegas, Nevada, and under the guidance of Dr. John A. Thompson, was injected with a slow-release testosterone pellet that the doctor falsely claimed was all-natural. In doping terms, anything your body does not make is not considered “organic” or “all-natural.” Peterson’s previous positive test story is chronicled in detail by this writer on Maxboxing.com here:

Even after that result, discovered by the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA), Peterson has maintained he is a believer in the anti-doping movement in boxing and would again test under VADA. Though Holt had requested VADA testing for this fight, Peterson, who co-endorsed it with new promoter Golden Boy Promotions, declined. At the time, he reasonably cited that the ESPN2 “Friday Night Fight’s” purse was nowhere near close enough to cover the roughly $20,000 VADA price tag.

HCG is a drug known in doping circles to be used as part of a performance-enhancing drug regimen to maintain testosterone production and prevent testicular shrinkage due to use of anabolic steroids and/or synthetic testosterone.

Dr. Don Catlin, former head of the UCLA Olympic Testing Lab (and one of the founders of Carbon Isotope Ratio testing method designed to detect synthetic testosterone), spoke to Maxboxing.com Thursday evening. Dr. Catlin gave his take on HCG and how it is used in the doping world.

“When you take testosterone, your system that promotes testosterone production goes to sleep. It gets suppressed; it goes away. If you take HCG, you can keep it alive and well. People like to use HCG because it keeps testosterone production going. That’s basically it. It’s kind of an adjunct to using anabolic steroids. When people take anabolic steroids, they like to take HCG in combination because then they won’t get the shutdown.”

Dr. Catlin also gave his thoughts on what an “atypical” result means in anti-doping terms.

“An atypical finding is not a positive but there is something unusual about the sample and it deserves a repeat [of the test] or some action to determine if it really is a positive,” Dr. Catlin explained. “It’s a complex term. ‘You can’t tell what’s going on’ is the answer. You have to take another sample from the athlete and find out what’s going on.”

In this case, Holt’s “B” sample would be the sample Dr. Catlin is referring to.

“If the ‘B’ is loud and clear [meaning a definitive positive or negative result] then OK,” said Dr. Catlin, “but there is something else going on when you use that term [“atypical”] and I don’t like the term, frankly, because it doesn’t tell you exactly what is going on. The term doesn’t tell you [anything definitive]; it just tells you something is wrong and that is not very satisfying.”

To end the day, RingTV.com issued a retraction and apologized to Peterson and anyone affected by the erroneous report:

You can email Gabriel at maxgmontoya@gmail.com, follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/gabriel_montoya and catch him every Monday on “The Next Round” with Steve Kim. You can also tune in to hear him and co-host David Duenez live on the BlogTalk radio show Leave-It-In-The-Ring.com, Thursdays at 5-8 p.m., PST.

Please visit our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/MaxBoxing, where you can discuss our content with Maxboxing readers as well as chime in via our fully interactive article comments sections.